Critics contend that Israel may have used agents to manipulate evidence such as phone records, falsely implicating some in the 2005 assassination. Certainly, a spy ring makes an easy scapegoat for nearly any unpopular political and economic mess.

One might argue the same outcome is just as possible with a privatized communications sector: those on the losing end of any political decision would dismiss the unpopular findings by blaming the spies. Perhaps. But a separation of communications and state would have provided the independent oversight from government that might have spared – or at least, lessened – the big investor chill that comes from a scandal in which state-run telecoms are associated with an Israeli spy ring.

So, what’s the lesson for business in all this? While free, competitive press and communications sectors are certainly not fail-safe, they minimize the complex threading of partisan divisions into the lifeblood of business. And that’s just one more in a long list of compelling reasons to keep press and telecoms out of the hands of big government, and securely in the domain of the private sector.